Murfreesboro Palmer's Brigade at Murfreesboro

larry_cockerham

Southern Gentleman, Lest We Forget, 2011
Honored Fallen Comrade
Joined
Feb 20, 2005
Location
Nashville
I'm looking for confirmation that the 63rd Virginia was part of Palmer's Brigade under the command of N.B. Forrest at Murfreesboro, Tennessee during the week of December 6 - 13, 1864. Any help? Anyone have a list of the regiments comprising this brigade during this period after the battle of Franklin on November 30, 1864?
 
Happy holidays Larry,
After doing some research, the 63rd Virginia cannot be detected as part of Palmer's Brigade during the battle of Murfreesboro. According to the American Civil War Homepage which is an excellent resource guide, Brigadier-General Joseph Palmer's brigade was composed of the following regiments: 3rd, 18th, 32nd, and 45th Tennessee regiments only. There is no mention of any Virginia regiments. When General Hood came into Tennessee, "this brigade was detached from the Army of Nashville and sent to co-operate with Bate and Forrest in a movement against Murfreesboro" This doesn't mean the the regiment you are interested in was not part of this brigade, there is just no mention of it. Hope this helps.
 
Not much help, but on the other hand, no harm. I have reason to believe that Palmer's command on December 21 was comprised of the following:

Palmer's brigade

3rd, 16th, 32nd and 45th Tennessee
54th and 63rd Virginia
60th North Carolina

297 effectives out of 438 present.

Smith's brigade

1st, 54th, 57th, 63rd Georgia

319 effectives out of 483 present.

As per a letter written by Samuel Robinson of the 63rd to his wife Lydia Jane dated 15 Jan 1865 in Tupelo, "our brigade was ordered to Murfresborough, we reached there on the 6 day of December and in the 7 we had afaight (sic) there with the yankeys but they was too many for us." Samuel didn't say which brigade, though the Dec 21 record places the 63rd with Palmer at that time and other records afterward in South and North Carolina. There must have been considerable re-organization going on after the battle at Franklin on November 30.

Jeff Weaver wrote: "By December 10, 1864 the 63rd was commanded by Lt. Col. Connally H. Lynch (Col. French had been taken prisoner at Murfreesboro), in Brown's and Reynolds' Brigades, now consolidated under the command of Col. Joseph B. Palmer"..... After the 10th they moved to Nashville in preparation of the battle, but were then called (ordered) back to Murfreesboro with Forrest.

Jeff continued "The brigade fell back first to Murfreesboro, Tennessee where Lt. Col. James T. Weaver of the 60th NC was accidentally killed by a sharpshooter under the command of Gen. Forrest. The 63rd was involved in the 'little battle' at Murfreesboro and suffered several casualties, though no specific numbers are available. During the period Dec 20, 1863 to Jan 3 1865 Col. J.B. Palmer's brigade was under the command of Gen. Walthall. 'Palmer's and Smith's brigade were consolidated for the effort due to reduced strength.'

Trying to get this information absorbed and straightened out in my old brain ain't all that easy! After reading the above, looks like I need to get a list of the regiments in Brown's and Reynold's brigades. Help?
 
Found part of my answer in the following paste, the rest is in my next post.

HOOD'S CORPS.
Lieut. Gen. JOHN B. HOOD.

HINDMAN'S DIVISION.
Maj. Gen. THOMAS C. HINDMAN.

Deas' Brigade.
Brig. Gen. ZACHARIAH C. DEAS.

19th Alabama, Col. Samuel K. McSpadden
22d Alabama, Col. Benjamin R. Hart.
25th Alabama, Col. George D. Johnston.
39th Alabama, Lieut. Col. William C. Clifton.
50th Alabama, Col. John G. Coltart.
17th Alabama Battalion Sharpshooters, Capt. James F. Nabers.

Tucker's Brigade.
Brig. Gen. WILLIAM F. TUCKER.

7th Mississippi, Lieut. Col. Benjamin F. Johns.
9th Mississippi, Capt. S. S. Calhoon.
10th Mississippi, Capt. Robert A. Bell.
41st Mississippi, Col. J. Byrd Williams.
14th Mississippi, Lieut. Col. R. G. Kelsey.
9th Mississippi Battalion Sharpshooters, Maj. William C. Richards.

Manigault's Brigade.
Brig. Gen. ARTHUR M. MANIGAULT.

24th Alabama, Col. Newton N. Davis.
28th Alabama Lieut. Col. William L. Butler.
34th Alabama, Col. Julius C. B. Mitchell.
10th South Carolina, Col. James F. Pressley.
19th South Carolina, Lieut. Col. Thomas P. Shaw.

Walthall's Brigade.
Brig. Gen. EDWARD C. WALTHALL

24th Mississippi, }
27th Mississippi, } Col. Samuel Benton.
29th Mississippi, ] Col. William F. Brant
30th Mississippi, ]
34th Mississippi,

STEVENSON'S DIVISION.
Maj. Gen. CARTER L. STEVENSON.

Brown's Brigade.
Brig. Gen. JOHN C. BROWN.

3d Tennessee (Volunteers), Lieut. Col. Calvin J. Clack.
18th Tennessee, Lieut. Col. William R. Butler.
26th Tennessee, Capt. Abijah F. Boggess.
32d Tennessee, Maj. John P. McGuire.
45th Tennessee, } Col. Anderson Searcy
23d Tennessee Battalion, }

Reynolds' Brigade.
Brig. Gen. ALEXANDER W. REYNOLDS.

58th North Carolina, Maj. Thomas J. Dula.
60th North Carolina, Lieut. Col. James T. Weaver.
54th Virginia, Col. Robert C. Trigg.
63d Virginia, Capt. Connally H. Lynch.
 
These two paragraphs are from Tennesseans in the Civil War – 45th Tennessee Infantry history

“On November 18, 1864 Brown's and Reynolds' Brigades were consolidated, and Colonel (later brigadier general) Joseph B. Palmer was placed in command of the combined brigade, which, from this time on, was known as Palmer's Brigade. The regiments from Reynolds' Brigade thus added were the 58th and 60th North Carolina, and 54th and 63rd Virginia Infantry Regiments. The 26th Tennessee was added to the field consolidation of the 45th/23rd Battalion, with the combined unit under Colonel Searcy of the 45th. The 58th North Carolina was soon transferred elsewhere, but the other units remained together until the reorganization of General Joseph E. Johnston's Army in North Carolina.

Folks here around Nashville don't give my Virginia boys much credit because of the fact they weren't in the order of battle at either Franklin or Nashville. Thanks to Gen. Hood sending these guys off with Forrest and Walthall, I'm here to write this message!
 
I spent a very pleasant Friday morning with Steven Cone who I met for the first time as the sun began to peek through the cedars near the main gate of the battle of Murfreesboro site. Steven was there for the celebration of the 140th anniversary of the battle of Jan/Dec 1862/63. I was looking for evidence of what the park staff refers to as the BATTLE OF THE CEDARS fought on December 7, 1864. Thanks to Steven, I have a general feel for the location. Apparently these two battles were fought on much the same ground! The Dec 7 1864 battle was the first day of the activity I have referred to in these previous posts. Do any of you have any reference to the skirmish by that name? That was the day General Forrest had a problem with the intensity of Smith's Brigade and gave them a bit of his temper. Not a good thing for Smith to do!
 
On Nov. 29 - Dec. 13, 1864 Palmer's Brigade consisted of the following regiments and consolidations:

Col. J. B. Palmer - commanding

3rd/18th Tennessee - Lt. Col. Wm. R. Butler
23rd/26th/45th Tennessee - Col. Anderson Searcy
32nd Tennessee - Col. John P. McGuire
54th Virginia - Wm. G. Anderson
63rd Virginia - Lt. Col. Connally H. Lynch
60th North Carolina - Maj. James T. Huff
 
Larry:

Sounds like you got your question answered. The Virginia "Compendium" says the 63rd VA was with Reynolds' and Brown's Consolidated-Palmer's Brigade, Stevensons Division from September '64 to April '65. It's last battle is listed as Bentonville
 
Good morning. My interest in this brigade has of course been focused through my ancestor Whitfield Monroe Parker who was in Co. B of the 63rd. Apparently many of these Virginia men had been wounded in some way prior to the battle of Franklin where a couple were also killed even though they arrived late on the evening of the 28th of November. GG grandpa Parker had been severely wounded in the defense of Atlanta on August 9 and was sent to Ocmulgee hospital in Macon for repairs. He and many of his comrades at the time of Franklin would have been traveling with or confined to the wagons that carried ordinance. Stephen Lee and J.B. Hood assigned them to remain with the wagons. Forrest later took this brigade to Murfreesboro at Hood's order rather than going on to Nashville. They were to destroy railroad installations and were involved in a rather serious battle on Dec 6 and 7 which the Murfreesboro battlefield park refer to as the Battle of the Cedars. This fight occurred on Manson Pike just south of the earlier 1862/3 larger battle and is about to be developed into a large hospital complex. According to GG grandpa's pension application he remained with the 63rd Virginia until May 1865 which would have included the battle of Bentonville east of Raleigh. I have always found it a stretch to believe he survived all this, but can find no records to contradict the notion. The witnesses on his application are strong evidence being men who were there. There is a family legend that when he was dropped from the train in his home village of Wallace Switch, just outside of Bristol, VA that he was unable to walk. He became a carpenter and is buried behind the Methodist Church just up the hill from his house which still stands. He lived until 1923.
 
By the time Smith and Palmer were consolidated under Walthall and Forrest at Columbia, Tennessee, the field organization looked like this:

December 20-Hood issued orders at Columbia, Tennessee to establish a substancial rear guard for the continued withdrawal toward the Tennessee River. N. B. Forrest had held off the Federal pursuit up to that time with very little organized infantry support. Forrest was to be in over all command with an estimated three thousand infantry in support under command of Walthall. Hood had given him permission to hand pick eight brigades for this hazardous and heroic task. The brigades were picked and temporarily consolidated to form four severely under-strength brigades. The brigades and commands were as follows:

Brigade Commands Commanding Officer Effective Strength

MGen Walthall

Featherston's & Quarles' BGen Featherson 498
Ector's & Reynolds' BGen Reynolds 528
Strahl's & Maney's Colonel H. R. Field 298
Smith's & Palmer's Colonel J. B. Palmer 297
Total: 1,621
"The command will stand in line-- Featherston on the right, then Field, Palmer, and Reynolds, in the order named."

You can see that on the 20th of Dec. Smith and Palmer's brigades consolidated numbered only 297 effective soldiers, the rest being too poorly clothed or unarmed or injured, and of course desertions.

Jamie
 
Larry,

I am very interested in this same subject, since my gr-gr-grandfather and his brother were with the 54th Virginia. Info on the Battle of the Cedars and Palmer's Brigade tends to be sketchy at best.

John W.
 
Here's a bit, I'm still collecting. Steven Cone actually pointed out the battle site for the Cedars skirmish on Dec 6 and 7, 1864 which is just south of the Stones River Battlefield of a year prior.

Federal General Jacob D. Cox, in his memoir, noted that Palmer’s Brigade, which included the 63rd, was brought up to reinforce Bate’s Division at Murfreesboro on the evening of December 6. The 63rd and Palmer’s Brigade were under General Nathan Bedford Forrest’s command in the Battle of the Cedars at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, fought on December 7, 1864. This event occurred on the southern edge of the battlefield site of 1862 along present-day Manson Pike then known as Wilkinson Pike. The 63rd lost at least one killed, three wounded and seven taken prisoner, but its casualties were probably much greater.

Murfreesboro
Wilkinson Pike, Cedars Tennessee
(from National Park Service brochures)

American Civil War December 5-7, 1864
In a last, desperate attempt to force Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman's army out of Georgia, Gen. John Bell Hood led the Army of Tennessee north toward Nashville in November 1864. Although he suffered a terrible loss at Franklin, he continued toward Nashville. In operating against Nashville, he decided that destruction of the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad and disruption of the Union army supply depot at Murfreesboro would help his cause. He sent Maj. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, on December 4, with an expedition, composed of two cavalry divisions and Maj. Gen. William B. Bate's infantry division, to Murfreesboro. On December 2, Hood had ordered Bate to destroy the railroad and blockhouses between Murfreesboro and Nashville and join Forrest for further operations; on December 4, Bate's division attacked Blockhouse No. 7 protecting the railroad crossing at Overall Creek, but Union forces fought it off. On the morning of the 5th, Forrest headed out toward Murfreesboro, splitting his force, one column to attack the fort on the hill and the other to take Blockhouse No. 4, both at La Vergne. Upon his demand for surrender at both locations, the Union garrisons did so. Outside La Vergne, Forrest hooked up with Bate's division and the command advanced on to Murfreesboro along two roads, driving the Yankees into their Fortress Rosencrans fortifications, and encamped in the city outskirts for the night. The next morning, on the 6th, Forrest ordered Bate's division to "move upon the enemy's works." Fighting flared for a couple of hours, but the Yankees ceased firing and both sides glared at each other for the rest of the day. Brig. Gen. Claudius Sears' and Brig. Gen. Joseph B. Palmer's infantry brigades joined Forrest's command in the evening, further swelling his numbers. On the morning of the 7th, Maj. Gen. Lovell Rousseau, commanding all of the forces at Murfreesboro, sent two brigades out under Brig. Gen. Robert Milroy on the Salem Pike to feel out the enemy. These troops engaged the Confederates and fighting continued. At one point some of Forrest's troops broke and ran causing disorder in the Rebel ranks; even entreaties from Forrest and Bate did not stem the rout of these units. The rest of Forrest's command conducted an orderly retreat from the field and encamped for the night outside Murfreesboro. Forrest had destroyed railroad track, blockhouses, and some homes and generally disrupted Union operations in the area, but he did not accomplish much else. The raid on Murfreesboro was a minor irritation.

Result(s): Union victory
Location: Rutherford County
Campaign: Franklin-Nashville Campaign (1864)
Date(s): December 5-7, 1864
Principal Commanders: Maj. Gen. Lovell H. Rousseau and Brig. Gen. Robert Milroy [US]; Maj. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest [CS]
Forces Engaged: District of Tennessee (forces in Murfreesboro area; approx. 8,000) [US]; Forrest's Cavalry, Bate's Infantry Division, and Brig. Gen. Claudius Sears's and Brig. Gen. Joseph B. Palmer's Infantry Brigades (6,500-7,000) [CS]
Estimated Casualties: 422 total (US 225; CS 197)

Captain Clark wrote his last known war-time letter to Martha in January 1865 from the Clayton Hospital Mess at Columbus, Georgia. He noted that he had been wounded at the battle of Murfreesboro, a slight wound in the wrist. “I was so exposed coming out of Tennessee that it became very sore… Many men have lost their toes and some their entire feet.”

Samuel Robinson’s account of the regiment’s activities in Tennessee were noted in a letter to his wife, Lydia Jane, dated January 15, 1865 from Tupelo. This very compelling letter is presented below, nearly in its entirety.

“We have been marching and fighting all of the time on the 30 day of November we had the hardest little fight that has bin during this campaign but we was too hard for them. We drove them out of their works but our loss was heavy. It is reported to be thirty eight hundred kiled and wounded and I han’t any dout but it is true for I want over the battle field the next morning and it was the turiblest sight that my eye ever beheld. The men lay piled and crossed upon each other where or men charged them. I think that we had about 3 to the yankeys one kiled. This fight took place at franklin. Tennessee and we run them on to Nashville where we skirmished with them several days when our Brigade was ordered to murfreesborough, we reached there on the 6 day of December and in the 7 we had a faight there with the yankeys but they was too many for us. We had several kiled and wounded our colonel was shot through the arme and was left in the hands of the enemy. They was one of my Co. that was left there but I don’t know whether he was kiled or captured and we fell back some three or four miles and took appsition so as to keep them from reinforcing at Nashville and on the 15 and 16 was a big fight on the night of the 16 Janeral hood commenced retreating from Nashville with a heavy loss and we have retreated some too hundred miles through the wet and cold mud half leg deep and a great many of the men was entirely barfotted and almost naked. The men marched over the frozen ground till their feet was worn out till they could be tracked by the blood and some of them there feet was frosted and swolen till they bursted till they could not stand on their feet now this is what I saw my self and our Brigade left back with Jeneral Forrest Caveraly to Bring up and cover they retreat which left us in danger of being captured at any time but we got out safe or the mos of them, we had to stop and fight them most every day. On the 25 of the month which was Christmas day we pased through the town that is called Pulaski and we crossed the river and the caveraly aim to burn the bridge but the yankees run up and drove our men away about too o’clock they overtaken us and we form a line of battle and they came up and we let loose a volley at they which turned them and we charged after them and captured several horses all one brass pees of artillery and that given them a sear till was not pestered with them any till we reached Tennessee River and we crossed over where we joined the rest of the army, or what got out. They was at least one third of the men left in Tenn kiled wounded and captured. So I will stop writing for this time. I am truly thankful that I am spared with they has so many hundred yeas thoughsands killed by and round me and I have yet escaped.”
 
Forgot to include that the past post (the letter) was from the work of cousin Jeffrey Craig Weaver 1991 in his history of the 63rd Virginia Regiment, H.E. Howard, publisher, Lynchburg, Virginia. (Part of the Virginia Regimental History Series)

My SCV membership is with
Sam Davis Camp 1293
Brentwood, TN
 
Larry,

I found this on the Authentic Campaigner Website:

Jim,

I lied early when I said I don't have my books; I found the regimental history of the 63rd VA. The counties furnishing soldiers to the 63rd were Washington, Smyth, Grayson, Wythe, Carroll, and Montgomery, on the North Carolina/ Tennesse border.
At Chickamauga, the 63rd and 54th fought with the 58th and 60th North Carolina and the 5th Kentucky of Reynolds Brigade, Johnson's Division. Here's a sample from First Sergeant Houston Collins of Company G:

Quote:
...I will inform you that we had a hard and severe fight the 18, 19, 20 of Sept in north western Ga. on Chickamauga River it is called the Battle of Chickamauga we whiped them badly our Brigade was not engaged till Sunday eaving they was not but 780 that went into the fight of our Regt and 57 was killed and wounded. They was one killed & five wounded in our Co.


By the time of the Atlanta Campaign both Virginia regiments were as follows:

Eff. Tot. Total Pres. Pres. & Absent No. of Arms Rounds per man
54th Va 340 390 806 329 40
63rd Va 212 303 731 188 40

Here's a report from March 1864 regarding the 63rd:
Ammuntion for
Item Quantity on Hand Weapon on Hand
Musket .69 calibre 370 18,600
Rifle, .58 calibre 57 5,800
Rifle, .57 calibre 59 7,300
Bayonetts 106
Bayonett Scabbard 106
Cord Bore 359
Cap Bore 338
Ball screws 3
Steel Driver 31
Kanp sack 387
Cover sacks 396
Canteens 308
Bell Pans 14
extra caps 8,000


Company Capt. Lts. Non commissioned Officers and Pvts
A 1 1 30
B 1 2 50
C 1 2 60
D 1 2 42
E 1 2 30
F 1 0 38
G 1 2 40
H 0 2 47
I(2) 1 2 34
K 1 5 50
TOTALS 9 20 421

John,

You are correct. Its been a while since I read about the 63rd.
From Jeffery Weaver's excellent history on the 63rd Va., pg. 42:
Quote:
General Braxton Bragg considered Reynolds's Brigade responsible for the defeat. According to Bragg they "were first to give way, and could not be reallied." There is evidence that this opinion was not widely held, including objection to the characterization of future Tennesse Governor John C. Brown.

http://www.authentic-campaigner.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12381
Go to that site and it will probably have some more info. on them.

Jamie
 
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